Rapid Coomassie Blue Staining of Protein Gels

Coomassie brilliant blue R250 (CBR-250) and silver staining are the most widely used methods for the routine visualization of proteins separated by SDS-PAGE. CBR-250 is an organic dye that complexes with basic amino acids, such as arginine, lysine, and histidine, as well as tyrosine. Conventional CBR-250 staining is capable of detecting as little as 30-100 ng of protein, but sensitivity can be improved by performing the staining and destaining at elevated temperatures. The method described in this protocol, which is a modified version of the conventional Coomassie protocol, speeds up the destaining process for faster results with increased sensitivity and is compatible with mass-spectrometry-based methods for identifying proteins.